War and Peace
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Anyone else hated this book?
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I have given up reading War & Peace. For those who said it was good, well, I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. After 200 pages of "chick flick" type writing; over-describing every boring dry detail has left me in tears of boredom. That and weeding through paragraphs written in French with translations in the footnotes was enough for me to finally say Th-Th-Th-THAT'S ALL FOLKS!! I can't say I cared about the characters because they were boring as well. Add to it that it is over 1300 pages of onion skin paper with size 10 font single spaced. Was this guy a masochist or a sadist? My bets are both at once. I give it 1 out of 5 and would not recommend it to anyone unless you like an overkill of descriptive words that take you nowhere....slowly...mindlessly slow....sucking your life out of you word by tedious word.
I hated the book as well the party stuff didn't bother me but the commentary on the military was very boring.
I liked the plot, however I hated reading the long descriptions so I just skipped them.
I did not hate the book, but I was an English major in college and read it only because I felt I should. I don't read things that I don't like anymore, even if they are classics. I'm too old to waste my few remaining years on doing that.
This book is brilliant. If you don't get it at first, read Andy Kaufman's "Give War and Peace a Chance" and then try again. Kaufman does a great job showing the main themes of War and Peace and making it more accessible.
Dolf wrote: "This book is brilliant. If you don't get it at first, read Andy Kaufman's "Give War and Peace a Chance" and then try again. Kaufman does a great job showing the main themes of War and Peace and mak..."Spot on
Totally agree with Kat. After watching Andy Kaufmann on You Tube talking about W&P , I gained a new perspective on how to read and enjoy this work. Nuance is everything!
War and Peace is one of the most subtly deep books ever written. How dare you invoke my wrath. Tolstoy would be rolling in his grave right now. 1. It wasn't even that hard to read.
2. It was thoroughly engaging; I still remember the vivid plot line and characters after I read it.
3. I would suggest reading War and Peace, then Tolstoy's other works like Anna Karenina and Resurrection
I read the Rosemary Edmonds translation and enjoyed it immensely until the last 40 pages. It was like seeing the promised land to be at hand (meaning the end of the book) I got bogged down in a quicksand of gibberish and let myself sink and just quit. 1443 pages of painstaking reading as it is, I was at page 1420 and I just stopped in my tracks and just quit.
I am halfway through War and Peace and I must say I enjoy the experience so far. I have to say I have been putting it off because the length of it and all the Russian names intimidated me. I may be wrong about this because I haven't finished it yet, but I think the title refers to the contrast between the war chapters and the chapters of the the people living in Russia for whom the war is just a rumor. For that reason I find that both parts are essential to the story. I don't know how I will feel by the end of it, but it looks promising
War and Peace is not boring at all.Every sentence strikes you and makes you think Tolstoy was a genius,i read the book 3 years ago and i still remember all the characters and their traits,the war is sometimes represented in a "suggestive" way,i mean,i hated Napoleon and i felt touched when the zar Alexander was presented to the russian soldiers, even if i don't care at all about that war.
War and Peace is pretty solid but Anna Karenina feels like a better novel.
I didn't hate the book, but I certainly hated Sonya's end!! It was so cruel...And everyone loves the Rostovs and I hated all of them - Nikolai, Natasha, the old countess... only Petya is kind and nice, but in most part of the book he's barely mentioned!
To understand this book, you have to be able to break through the rather tedious historical and military sections. I would recommend finding an abridged version if you want help with this. But this is a classic for a reason.I personally was strongly engaged with the characters and the emotion in this novel. Tolstoy's tone is conversational and feels fairly modern, which is more than I can say for other Russian and classic authors. And, with the exception of some of his historical arguments, I would say he avoids being "preachy" for the most part. If you didn't like this book, please try reading it again in an abridged or annotated format. I don't want you to miss out on the goodness in it!
Why do people dislike the military sections? They're great! Suspenseful, epic, while also being deeply philosophical, sometimes with regards to politics, and sometimes with regards to the human condition. I preferred them over the "peace" sections, although I liked those too.
I'm so relieved to know that I'm not the only one to find this book terribly boring. I managed to get to page 263 and can't read on. Looking for another classic now. Any suggestions of French books?
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Tolstoy was another of those who should never have picked up a pen. His romantic bourgeois pap is indicative of a particular class of people who do not want to live in the real world. That's fine by me but don't pretend that you are educated.